How the NHS wastes money.

Going back to the original post.
Was that Hospital a PFI build /control one? If so it costs a small fortune to sort the smallest problem, they over see the work with their staff.
The Hospital I work in is a PFI build with an eye watering mortgage, and on costs.
We wanted a wall clock for our office wall (as naked below elbows, no watches) we were quoted well over £200, we questioned it but given some cock and bull answer that clock will be on the Hospital clock system and covered for about 10 years.
I bought one from IKEA for £2.. We used a Hook and put it a notice board done!

I realise we were lucky HVDY. It turned out my husband had an awful virus. They saw incoming patients more or less straight away to assess the urgency. DH lay in the seats with me holding a bowl in case he was sick (sorry). It's not just the people waiting in A&E, ambulance crews come in every five minutes bringing more people, most of whom were not left in A&E. There were only one or two who voiced the occasional complaint. Most were patient and understanding. There was a lady who appeared to be living in A&E with bags of possessions around her. We were there all night and she lay down across the seats and covered herself with a blanket!

Kate1949 I didn't mean you were lucky, because nobody should have to wait all that time to see a doctor. The whole system is broken, and it isn't to do with lack of funding. I hope your husband soon feels better.

The nhs have supplied my daughter with expensive computer equipment so she can work at home on days she chooses too. She can work perfectly well at work, why spend this extra money to give her a home work station too. Seems crazy to me🤷‍♀️ However convenient when children are poorly as she can then still work instead of taking carers leave!!

I realised that HVDY Yes he is fine now thank you.

Q. How many NHS employees does it take to change a light bulb?
A. 21:
1 member of ward staff to ask a higher-ranking member of ward staff what should be done
1 higher-ranking member of ward staff to phone whichever manager happens to be in his/her office at that moment
1 member of ward staff to phone Maintenance to report the issue
1 member of Maintenance office staff to write a requisition for a new bulb
1 member of Maintenance office staff find a copy of the light-bulb insertion procedure (or design & print one if it's missing)
1 member of Maintenance office staff to allocate a maintenance worker to the job
3 maintenance workers to rope off the entire area around the light to a 10-foot radius
4 members of ward staff to discuss whether a 20-foot diameter will contravene the current health & safety rules
1 member of ward staff to phone the maintenance man & tell him he can now come to do the job
2 maintenance men to carry out the job (1 to do it, the other to hold the ladder and chat up any passing nurses)
4 ward staff to discuss what to do with the old bulb
1 member of ward staff to chuck the old bulb in the bin and hope nobody queries whether it could have been recycled

In anticipation of any PC bellyaching, before I wrote this I asked the maintenance man what his preferred pronouns were. So you can increase the number to 22.

I don’t know where you got that fromNonGrannyMoll but it’s wildly inaccurate. Example, at ward level all staff are responsible for reporting a fault. It’s an online system, all staff are trained, it retains a record of what has been requested so if somebody else sees the same issue they can see at a glance if it’s been reported or not. I doubt if the system is much different to that anywhere in the UK.

I think it's a shame to parody those working so hard and the many who do get things right like that NonGrannyMoll. Thankfully other GN threads on the NHS have said "thank you". Criticism where its constructive but balance.

My friend, a widow on her own, had to phone the GP on Monday, she was extremely dizzy, unable to walk straight and had severe pain down her left arm. Was advised to phone 999. The response was it would be at least a five hour wait for an ambulance. A Paramedic and ambulance arrived seven hours later, decided she didn't need hospital care, but to contact GP in the morning. Saw GP on Tuesday, diagnosed inner ear infection. Here in Wales we have been told that strokes are not considered serious enough for immediate hospitalization , and if you consider you are having a heart attack you should get yourself to hospital by what every means a you can. .

Casdon

I don’t know where you got that fromNonGrannyMoll but it’s wildly inaccurate. Example, at ward level all staff are responsible for reporting a fault. It’s an online system, all staff are trained, it retains a record of what has been requested so if somebody else sees the same issue they can see at a glance if it’s been reported or not. I doubt if the system is much different to that anywhere in the UK.

And thanks to Kate 1949 for detailing your experience which I know is challenging and frequent. My 78 year old stage four cancer patient collapsed on Sunday evening. The ambulance arrived an hour later during which he’d drifted in out consciousness. Paramedics called the cardio specialists who arrived forty mins later. He was blue lighted to the cardio unit and admitted straight into a bed. He died seven hours later
Of course the waits were hard for his wife but after over a year of treatment/hospitals she was prepared. She couldn’t praise the many members of staff involved highly enough

GrannyIvy I applaud the NHS trust your daughter works for. They clearly want to retain her as a member of staff and are prepared to make changes to make her work more attractive. The NHS doesn't always pay very well but recruitment of new staff and their training is expensive. Actually many people who work from home are more productive, value their jobs and are loyal to their employers. I say that as someone who worked mainly from home for the last 20 years of my working life. Actually computer equipment is pretty cheap these days.

Casdon

I don’t know where you got that fromNonGrannyMoll but it’s wildly inaccurate. Example, at ward level all staff are responsible for reporting a fault. It’s an online system, all staff are trained, it retains a record of what has been requested so if somebody else sees the same issue they can see at a glance if it’s been reported or not. I doubt if the system is much different to that anywhere in the UK.

At a hospital I was in last year the patients were all freezing cold, especially overnight and cold air was blowing directly on to us. The nursing staff gave us extra blankets, I wore one like a headscarf, another one round my shoulders. The staff said they'd reported the problem innumerable times but nothing was done. As soon as they could, they moved us to another ward which was fine.
They asked us to put this in as a complaint on report forms we were given.

I needed a voice activated computer after our secretarial support was withdrawn RA made typing difficult. So my last ten years I wfh going into the office once a week and for team meetings etc
I was productive and happy. There may be the odd skiver but they’re equally at home in the office

A few years ago I worked in a GP surgery. Every time we needed to employ a telephone interpreter it cost the surgery £500 a time. This was for the patients who actually lived in the UK. As they were citizens there was no chance of getting the money back.

When I read the OP I just felt annoyed at the lazy maintenance man who took advantage of having the opportunity to work without supervision.
There is certainly a need for the NHS to have a hard look at areas where money can be saved and I hope that will happen sooner rather than later.

nanna8

I don’t know what it is like there but here if they are doing roadworks you usually get 6 people. One doing the work, one holding up a sign for traffic and 4 standing around with their hands in their pockets chatting. The young ones ( usually female) who hold up the traffic signs get paid a huge amount, presumably ‘ danger money’ More than nurses, teachers at any rate. Sometimes there are more people standing around chatting. Very noticeable because they have to wear orange vests.

I could have written this about where I live.

Skydancer

nanna8

I don’t know what it is like there but here if they are doing roadworks you usually get 6 people. One doing the work, one holding up a sign for traffic and 4 standing around with their hands in their pockets chatting. The young ones ( usually female) who hold up the traffic signs get paid a huge amount, presumably ‘ danger money’ More than nurses, teachers at any rate. Sometimes there are more people standing around chatting. Very noticeable because they have to wear orange vests.

I could have written this about where I live.

Road workers are in danger because motorists often ignore the traffic management signs.

Charleygirl5

At my GP surgery, there are many Polish patients, and interpreters are provided when necessary. However, I am sure if I were in Poland, I would have to provide and pay for my own interpreter.

Quite honestly I don’t think the NHS should provide any interpreters at all. People should either take a dual language family member/friend with them, or they should pay for the services of an interpreter.

If a Japanese tourist has a stroke here in the UK, they will be treated for free, because the UK provides all emergency treatments free to anyone who is in the country. However the provision of an interpreter should be the responsibility of the patient, most likely through his/her travel insurance policy.

It’s no wonder there’s insufficient funding in the NHS.

Sadly, Alira, this is not the case. Competency in the English language was disbanded some years ago when either the BMA or the GMC decided that it was "discriminatory".

I have frequently had conversations with incomprehensible medics. The Trust for which I worked many years ago, had an unwritten policy that all medical secretaries should be English, so that they could translate the incomprehensible letters which were dictated!!

The waste is absolutely phenomenal and a disgrace. No privately run company would allow it. Do you know that all the expensive equipment which is freely put into a patient's home, in order to allow them to live there - wheelchairs, commodes, hoists and slings, walking frames, hospital beds, rails and other paraphenalia - is disposed of when the patient no longer needs it? Even if it is in good working order? Most of it (not commodes) is very easily sterilised (I saw it being done in one of the Scandinavian countries), therefore can be reused.

Whenever one of my clients was returned home from a brief stint n hospital, they would arrive with blankets, pillows and sheets, despite them having a full complement of bed linen at home. On one occasion I tried to return these to the local hospital. The nursing staff did not know what to do with it - apart from putting it all in the bin. How wrong is that? What is the national cost?

I can tell you much more but will let you have a big yawn instead!!

dalrymple23

Sadly, Alira, this is not the case. Competency in the English language was disbanded some years ago when either the BMA or the GMC decided that it was "discriminatory".

I have frequently had conversations with incomprehensible medics. The Trust for which I worked many years ago, had an unwritten policy that all medical secretaries should be English, so that they could translate the incomprehensible letters which were dictated!!

The waste is absolutely phenomenal and a disgrace. No privately run company would allow it. Do you know that all the expensive equipment which is freely put into a patient's home, in order to allow them to live there - wheelchairs, commodes, hoists and slings, walking frames, hospital beds, rails and other paraphenalia - is disposed of when the patient no longer needs it? Even if it is in good working order? Most of it (not commodes) is very easily sterilised (I saw it being done in one of the Scandinavian countries), therefore can be reused.

Whenever one of my clients was returned home from a brief stint n hospital, they would arrive with blankets, pillows and sheets, despite them having a full complement of bed linen at home. On one occasion I tried to return these to the local hospital. The nursing staff did not know what to do with it - apart from putting it all in the bin. How wrong is that? What is the national cost?

I can tell you much more but will let you have a big yawn instead!!

Completely wrong. International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are required to pass an English language test before they can register with GMC. Please stop with the racism.

I’m not defending the lack of recycling of expensive equipment. Over thirty years ago our social work teams were horrified but the response was that the cost of collecting cleaning and completing admin was greater than cost of equipment
We did collect our aids clean recycle but we were in house

We can recycle walking aids to the local hospital here, and the Council has a recycling schemes for all loaned equipment for home use. This is in Wales, and all areas here now do the same. I wonder if this is available in England too, it started quite recently, in 2021 I think, for my area.

International Medical Graduates (IMGs) are required to pass an English language test before they can register with GMC

I understood it was still the case and for nurses and midwives too, who wish to work in the NHS.

As already stated, foreign doctors have to pass a competency test in English. Why do people make such inflammatory comments is totally beyond me. The NHS would not function at all if all the foreign trained staff left and all the ones that I came into contact with during 2024 spoke English.